In 1998, director of the busiest and most important customs officer in Svilengrad is Georgi Shishkov. Having gone through two assassination attempts, Shishkov later became a UDS deputy. He is one of the first to be accused of taking money from smuggling. Shishkov, however, managed to condemn the politician who accused him, and in turn claimed that the general group, which included the late Gen. Lyuben Gotsev is behind the channels.
Today Georgi Shishkov is far from politics. He is engaged in agriculture, but accepted the invitation of BNT to talk about the old and the new. After the failure of the loyalty test of more than 25 employees of the customs office in Svilengrad - it was closed, and all its work was taken over by the customs office in Burgas.
"Nikolay Nikolov - Pascal was not a customs officer. He was a driver in international transport, I have known him casually since 1993. I met him at my friend's wedding. There are increased migrants from Greece in Haskovo and Dimitrovgrad. These people are interesting to people from State Security. The lead officer caught Nikolai as a youth and put them in touch with one of these Greek migrants, and after 1990 they formed a joint firm. To this Greek citizen who lives in Bulgaria - his relatives start organizing the cigarette drives from Cyprus through Thessaloniki and so on to Bulgaria". This was stated by the former director of customs in Svilengrad Georgi Shishkov in "Speak Now".
He explained that the big figure in smuggling was Ivan Todorov-Doktora, and Pascal was just a good "performer". "He plays the big games, and Pascal is a regional representative, he is a good performer, does not ask unnecessary questions, does not improvise, maybe that is why he has survived over the years," added Georgi Shishkov.
In his words, people from the "top of politics" are not always involved in such schemes. "Very often things depend on the regional level. In order for a channel to function, 3 people are needed - a customs officer to let the goods pass, a policeman and a magistrate to protect them. It doesn't have to be someone from the top of politics. I have doubts that Petya Bankova is involved in similar schemes," Shishkov explained.